Pathet Lao Case Study Analysis

Assess the consequences of the Vietnamese victory against the French for Indochina in the periods 1954-1964.

The United States first became involved in the Vietnam in 1949, providing military aid to France in the First Indochina War. After 5 more years of conflict, a peace conference in Geneva was held and the French colony of Indochina was spilt into 3 countries including Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Additionally, Vietnam was divided along the 17th Parallel into the communist north and anti-communist south. This was only supposed to last until an election that would unify the north and south under one governmental body, however, South Vietnam rejected the election. US “military advisors” were sent to support the South Vietnamese’s resistance efforts.

The SEATO Treaty was formed in 1954. The South-East Asia Collective Defence Treaty provided for defensive action to be taken in the event of an attack on the United States Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, the Philippines or Pakistan. South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were also guaranteed protection under the treaty’s security arrangements. (see appendix II). The generalized view of the Vietnam War from the people of the world saw a defiant and definite collection of Western countries (‘Western Bloc’, fighting for freedom against a primitive evil Eastern organism of countries (‘Eastern Bloc’).

The Geneva Peace Agreement in May 1954 set the foundation for the developments in the next coming years in Vietnam. The Agreement accorded that Vietnam was to be divided at the 17th parallel into communist North and democratic South Vietnam giving each country independence, a 200 day legal migration period and general elections to be held at both zones in 1956 to reunify Vietnam. The division would cause developments in each country including economic development through the growing nationalism in North Vietnam, political developments through political ineptitude and corruption in South Vietnam and social changes

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the Pathet Lao (PL) created the “Liberated Area”. Many scholars have already showed that the PL developed it as the military, economic or cultural base with the assistance of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) during the Second Indochina War. However, no studies have ever tried to clarify when the PL gained the area.

The US has been known to diverge from its once-isolationist state, engaging in international affairs like World War I and several other events alike. It’s therefore no surprise that the US intervened in the Vietnam War during the 1960’s. At the time, President Lyndon B. Johnson put forth new ideas, plans and tactics to help and protect the South Vietnamese and surrounding countries from communist influence. However, the United States’ initial goals and plans didn’t always go the way they had expected. Indeed, Johnson’s Vietnam policies failed because of his unreasonable military strategies and his inefficient political actions.

They quickly started to take control of Laos and forced their way into power. The Laotian government, instead of continuing a losing war, surrendered to prevent any further casualties, under an agreement that no one oppose the Pathet Laos forces and no one harmed. They handed over control. With the new change, the Hmong refugees flee Laos in fear of their safety. United States tried to help evacuate refugees into Thailand. The problem was that there were limited resources to accomplish this, leaving many Hmong refugees still in Laos. With the Pathet Lao, now in control and not forgetting, or forgiving the Hmong people for fighting alongside of the Americans. They now started to carry out their revenge, on the betrayers to their country. There have been stories of the Pathet Lao exacting attacks on the Hmong people by murders or gunfire. Nevertheless, that will change around the summer of 1975. Reports start coming to the United State, Stating that chemical weapon used on Hmong people in Laos. In order to move the Hmong people out of their strongholds in the mountains, The Pathet Lao had used Chemical weapons received from their communist ally Russia. This information was coming from relief workers stationed in Thailand working with Hmong Refugees. As time went on, more and more similar reports started to generate. These stories passed on from refugees making it into Thailand refugee camps. Most of who lived in the Phu Bia Mountains.

Insurgency in the Revolution and Vietnam Evaluating the strategy used by both the British and the United Stated during the Vietnam War, one can pin the underlying failure for both superior countries on the fact that neither fully understood the true nature of the conflict at hand. This led to unclear political objectives and an ensuing military strategy that relied upon limited use of force to quell each rebellion respectively. To paraphrase LtCol Daly, “military force” should only be advocated for “when the political situation” supports a “decisive military campaign.” This paper will discuss a few examples to compare and contrast the insurgency and counter-insurgency efforts in both conflicts using Mao Tse-tung’s three phases of insurgency. Both the British and the United States were considered the “superpower”, stronger in all facets of national power during each war as compared to the adversary.

Arrowood, Janet. Vietnam . Edison, NJ: Hunter Publishing, 2009. eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 1 Oct. 2015.

The existence of democracy and communism in both Vietnam and Laos urged the United States to take action and immediately support the Southern Vietnamese and the Hmong people. Both groups of people experienced devastating results from the war. However, the outcome for each group was different. In Vietnam, the Southern Vietnamese remained, but rebuilding their country from the war’s destruction became their most difficult issue. While in Laos, the Pathet Lao had exiled the Hmong people. This group had no supplies and no home after the war. In the end, the communists won the war, but this result did not stop resistance groups from emerging.

“I lost 17,000 men, almost 10 percent of the total Hmong population," General Vang Pao said. "The Hmong sacrificed the most in the war and were the ones who suffered the most” (Vietnam War 'secret Army' Chief Vang Pao Dies in US). The C.I.A. recruited the Hmong as their allies when the communist Pathet Lao joined the Laotian government because the U.S. feared that the neighboring countries would fall into communism too. During the Vietnam War, negotiators from different countries agreed that Laos would remain neutral under the Geneva (Thompson). But because the United States feared the spread of communism, the C.I.A. directed a covert operation in Laos known as the Secret War. The Hmong people were abandoned, forgotten and treated poorly after

Located in Southeast Asia between Thailand and Vietnam, Cambodia was home to one of the bloodiest political regimes to exist in the 20th century. In a country, in which American government reports in 1959 documented, was full of “ ‘docile and passive people…[who] could not be counted on to act in any positive way for the benefit of US aims and policies’”, the United States conflict in neighboring Vietnam brought about incredible changes to an unsuspecting people (qted. in Dunlop 70). The countryside was bombed by the United States in order to uproot suspected North Vietnamese holdouts and supply routes starting in 1969. These bombing raids, which devastated

The history of recent years in the Indochina conflict has been an eventful one. It will exhibit to the eyes of the future student some of the most remarkable instances of a ruthlessness and indifference to common humanity. Moreover, it will, I believe, demonstrate that North Vietnam has, for a long time, steadily pursued a communist regime which was deliberately designed to produce a subjugation of other countries by the threat of communism.

War or conflict is a part of the mankind’s world. Although nobody likes war but it still exists as a certain fact with various appearances and characters. In the 21st century, the phantom of the war and terrorism become a truly threaten to international community. In Vietnam, there is no terrorism or religious war. Frankly, Vietnam does not have to deal with this complicated issues. However, Vietnam is facing to many unforeseen risks that directly threaten against the security and national defense as well stability and development of Vietnam. One of that unforeseen risks is potential war between Vietnam and China. The Sun Tzu

---After WWII and until 1955, France fought hard to regain their former territories in the region, but with a poorly organized army and little determination among the troops, their efforts soon collapsed. The French were finally defeated at Dien Bien Phu on the 8th of May 1954 by the communist general Vo Nguyen Giap. The French troops withdrew, leaving a buffer zone separating the North and South and set up elections in order to form a government in the South. The communist regime set up its headquarters in Hanoi under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh. Many North Vietnamese left the country and fled south where the self-proclaimed president, Ngo Dinh Diem had formed the Republic of Vietnam.